Adventure Forward’s timeline is anything but straightforward for a game series that has Forward in its name. That’s why I’ll be going over the timeline as best as I can.
Adventure Forward: Star Savior
The story of Adventure Forward starts in Adventure Forward: Star Savior, when the game’s antagonist, Stratosfear, knocks the stars out of the sky, locking various parts of Maytown behind barriers that can only be opened with the power of the stars so that they can collect those stars themself. This is when the player character, the Star Savior, arrives in Maytown and starts collecting stars. After collecting 50 stars, they face off against and defeat Stratosfear, saving Maytown. Maytown throws a festival in celebration, and the Star Savior collects one final star.
The Star Savior can now go through a door requiring 51 stars, where they find a monochrome version of the area where they started their journey and can speak with Cyalm, the one who granted Stratosfear their powers. Cyalm tells the Star Savior that they are Stratosfear, and the Stratosfear they defeated was a future version of them that had been sent back in time. The Star Savior denies this, but it’s already their destiny. The conversation ends with Cyalm telling the Star Savior, “One day you will change your mind, and come running back to me. Take your sweet time, Stratosfear.”
Eventually, as destined, the Star Savior becomes Stratosfear, and the timeline resets, sending the new Stratosfear back to before the Star Savior arrived. The new Stratosfear takes the place of the old one, and everything repeats. It’s not clear how many times this happens, but eventually, the burden of becoming Stratosfear is too much for one of the Star Saviors to handle, and they tell their closest friend, Mayor Maynot, about it. Knowing their cover has been blown, Cyalm appears, turning Mayor Maynot into a Point and sealing away his memories. Cyalm then seals the Star Savior away, forces them to become Stratosfear, and makes them a puppet.
Adventure Forward 2: Points Of Conflict
Three hundred years later, the second Star Savior (who will be referred to as SS2) is summoned by Cyalm, who is pretending to be not evil. Cyalm tells SS2 that the first Star Savior (who will now be referred to as SS1) vanished after defeating Stratosfear and that a new evil being known as Celesteal has appeared. Cyalm sends SS2 off to the Sky Emporium to collect stars.
SS2 goes off to collect stars and symbols, meeting the Points that inhabit each world. After getting all the required stars and symbols, they, along with all the Points, go through the final door. After reaching a dead end, Cyalm appears, teleporting SS2 and Anshine to a tea party where they see Stratosfear. The tea party is quickly interrupted by Compale and Ulipse, and Cyalm sends SS2 to the final world of AF2, Shattered Shardscape.
SS2 goes through Shattered Shardscape, a ruined version of the Sky Emporium, and arrives at the end, finding Cyalm, who bluntly admits that, yes, they are evil. Confronting Cyalm along with all the points, Cyalm reveals that everything that’s happened is part of their narrative and that they are the one who turned all the Points into Points. Impressed at how they all still cling to hope, Cyalm fights SS2, but loses. In the brief moment that they lose control, Stratosfear is able to break free from Cyalm’s control by shattering their symbol, which they could only do since Cyalm never wiped their memories.
Stratosfear talks to SS2 and the Points, explaining that they are SS1, as well as most of the events of AF1. Cyalm appears again, this time with the Shooting Star, SS2’s only weapon throughout the game. After monologuing for a bit, Cyalm reveals that Stratosfear’s symbol was once theirs before they switched to the 6-pointed blue star, and says, “If you combine the two, you might get Celesteal’s symbol, don’t you think?”. Anshine expresses doubts about whether Celesteal is real, but those doubts are short-lived as Cyalm reveals that they are Celesteal, the final obstacle for SS2 to overcome.
With the help of all the Points, as well as Stratosfear, SS2 defeats Celesteal, ending Cyalm’s reign… Until they find another door in the Sky Emporium. Behind it is Yawgate, a new Point that handles the many pocket dimensions made by Celesteal- including the one that Stratosfear was trapped in. Behind Yawgate is a forcefield of shards made by Celesteal, meaning they’re still partially alive, likely in one of the pocket dimensions. After collecting 55 stars, SS2 goes into the pocket dimensions.
Going through the pocket dimensions, SS2 meets Yawgate once more, then Stratosfear, who thanks SS2 for giving them a second chance. Next, they meet Morward, a manifestation of the future, followed by Pasless, a manifestation of the past. Finally, they meet Voixer, a manifestation of the void. Voixer challenges SS2 to a fight where the winner can rewrite history. However, when Voixer goes to begin the fight, their form changes, which shouldn’t be possible, as they are, quite literally, nothingness. Realising that they are not made of nothing, but rather a remnant of Celesteal, Voixer kills themself, taking the last fragment of Celesteal with them.
Returning from the pocket dimension, SS2 finds that the shards behind Yawgate are gone, meaning that Celesteal is finally gone for good. Behind what was once a wall of shards is one last message from them, and one last symbol to collect.